Why Study Applied Linguistics?

Studying applied linguistics is useful for all sorts of employment as it gives you an understanding of many aspects of human communication. It is particularly useful for communicating in the workplace and applying problem-solving and analytical skills across many areas.

The Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication at UMBC has had an interdisciplinary focus since the mid-1970s, and the department is currently composed of specialists in linguistics, the social sciences, second language pedagogy, bilingual education, literary analysis, cultural studies, and intercultural communication.

A concentration in Applied Linguistics provides valuable background knowledge for anyone going into fields such as translation, editing, speech pathology, or audiology.

Students who choose the Applied Linguistics concentration begin with a grounding in phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an introduction to the field of Applied Linguistics. In addition, students will explore upper-level linguistics courses before more technical courses, which cover the four structural areas of language more substantially, and explore ways in which linguistics reaches out to other disciplines, for example, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and language policy.